The Straits Echo: Times of Malaya & Pinang Gazette, May 27, 1969

This was by far the most unusual newspaper in the stack of papers I bought at the flea market last year. This was an English-language newspaper for Pinang, one of the largest island provinces in Malaysia. The audience was primarily English, Australians and Americans who were living there. This newspaper, which as it's title indicates was a merger of two separate papers, operated from 1946 to 1972.

Two weeks earlier, the capital city of Kuala Lumpur was rocked by widespread violence, with post-election tensions between Malays and ethnic Chinese leading to riots, leaving hundreds dead. Pinang saw some minor violence, and presumably that is what caused the implementation of curfews.

Otherwise things were pretty much business as usual, including lots of movies. No late shows of course, but you could catch everything from a Jacqueline Bisset film to kung fu films to a Bollywood comedy that will "steel your heart and make you crazy".

A lot of this newspaper had a tabloid-like feel with lurid crime stories and profiles of young ladies like the "Perfect Dream from Taiwan".

Everything from a reminder to register your children for school, to a turkey thief, to Andy Capp.

Yes there is a sports page! No baseball of course - the headline sport is high school water polo. Cricket, soccer and tennis are also covered.

TCDB/OCB roundup

A few incoming cards this week. 

Starting with a PWE from a very nice trader on TCDB, someone whom I've traded with before and would do so again. I am keeping him nameless this time, to show how pointless some of the things are people do when trying to "protect" cards in a PWE.

The cards arrived in a nine-pocket page with the superfluous cereal-box cardboard on either side. I find the cardboard doesn't add extra protection (that is what the plastic pages are for), but the corners of the cardboard are great at poking holes in the thin paper of an envelope. The sender also stamped "Photos - Do Not Bend" on the envelope. The post office clearly took that as a challenge and the whole thing had been folded lengthwise - across all three pockets - at some point in the process. Whether it was a human that read the stamp and didn't care, or a machine that had no way to recognize the stamp, who knows.

Fortunately I don't care about condition so I don't mind that every card in the envelope arrived with some creasing in the middle, some more than others. I just wanted to note that the so-called "correct" way to pack a PWE doesn't actually work the way some people on TCDB seem to think it does.

Luis Robert and Jake Cronenworth are both set-killers. A great Maury Wills photo and a random building in downtown Manhattan are other highlights.

Two great vintage cards as well!

On the other end of the condition scale are these cards from Tscastle. He doesn't even care about condition of his cards; he saw my recent blog post with the low-grade vintage HOF cards and wanted the '68 Topps Game Frank Robinson. I traded him that and a few more vintage needs and modern Orioles. The cards he sent back are some of the best-conditioned vintage I've ever seen. Good enough that I was a little afraid to handle them.

As you can see there was one 2024 card snuck in there. The opposite was the case for this trade with Hebron Reds Fan, sneaking in a 1983 Fleer sticker with these 2024 cards.

Seven more from '24, thanks to bplay24. How appropriate. I'm down to four cards left for Series I. All rookies - Elly De La Cruz, Evan Carter, and two guys I'd never heard of.

From OBC, Dan Angland keeps sending me 1982 Topps football cards. He sent these . . .

. . . and separately, this card. Mark Gastineau was a very big deal when I first started following football in the mid-1980s.\

Finally, some cards from Canada from a collector in Canada, Andrew Goguen. A couple of vintage hiding among the '80s cards.
 

1974 Topps Deckle Dating - Ted Simmons

Once again we have a spring training shot . . .

 

. . . with a dubious date.

 

On Tom Seaver's card the photo was exactly the same time as his 1973 base card. For Simmons, the photo is different but was clearly taken at the same time. You can even see the same bats in the background.

Simmons was in Series One in 1973, so this card was certainly out already by April 3, 1973. My guess is that the photograph was April 3, 1972. Maybe in the Topps photo archives, the date was written on the photo but not the year, and whoever was editing the deckles assumed all the photos they were using were from 1973. Nope - there was a baseball strike going on and players were locked out of their spring training ballparks. I have no other guesses, but it seems odd that Topps would just make up a date.

1986 Spokane Indians at the Mall - Greg Harris

Looks like a jewelry store. Mandell's operated several jewelry stores in the Spokane area for 65 years before closing in 2001 due to the retirement of its owner.

Greg Harris came up with the Padres in 1988 and was great in his first four seasons, going 27-22 with a 2.34 ERA in 152 games. Unfortunately, his career stalled at that point, due to injuries and subsequent malpractice (for which he later won $6 million in a court case). Overall in 243 games (109 starts) for the Padres, Rockies and Twins from 1988 to 1995, he went 45-64 with a 3.98 ERA. He is now a youth baseball coach for Rawlings Prospects NC.

1981 Topps Mario Soto

 RIP former Yankees pitcher Fritz Peterson. He shared his thoughts on baseball cards with this blog in 2014.

The front: Ironically for a card with a cap in it's design, Soto isn't wearing one. Almost looks like he took his cap off and is holding it in front of him. Looks like Shea Stadium in the background.

The back: Soto pitched two scoreless innings in Game 3 of the NLCS.

The player: Mario Soto was one of the NL's best pitchers in the 1980s. From 1980 to 1985 he won at least 10 games each year, topped by an 18-7 mark in 1984. He had low ERAs for most of those years, and topped 200 strikeouts three times, including 274 in 1982. Injuries, perhaps due to a heavy workload, quickly reduced his effectiveness, and he retired after the 1988 season at the age of 31. He had been traded to the Dodgers late in the season but never appeared for them, despite his 1989 Score card appearing to show him pitching for them. Overall in 297 games, all for the Reds, he went 100-92 with a 3.47 ERA.

The man: The temperamental Soto was involved in several brawls during his career, earning two suspensions during the 1984 season. He had no incidents after his playing career, and has had a long and successful career as a coach. He opened a baseball school in the Dominican Republic in 1991, and he has spent many years in the Reds organization working with their pitchers.

My collection: I have 40 of his cards, from 1978 to 1989. I would be interested in trading for 1978 SSPC #117.

Trade with cwpetro

cwpetro on TCDB is doubly rare - not only is he unconcerned about condition, but he is willing to trade vintage for junk wax! I was able to find about 100 cards for him, mostly 1990s, and this is what I got in return.

Starting off with some oddballs, including two Cardinals stars in unfamiliar uniforms.

Four from the mid-60s. Check out Frank Kostro warily eyeing Bill Pleis.

Seven needs for my 1966 set.

1968 high numbers! Some fun cutting jobs there by Topps.

These were the two cards I was most excited about. I am now down to eight needs for this set. Three of them are Reggie, Mickey and Nolan, but the other five shouldn't be too hard to get. (Lee May, semi-high's Earl Weaver, Billy Martin and Luis Tiant, high-number George Stone)

Early 70s semi-high and high numbers are much tougher than 1969s, so it was nice to get a bunch of these.

1976 SSPC Gary Nolan

 

The card, in brief: One of the more interesting poses in the set, over-the-shoulder while sitting on the dugout steps. Almost feels like you are sitting next to him having a chat.

The player, in brief: Gary Nolan came up with the Reds in 1967 and had a great rookie season, going 14-8 with a 2.58 ERA. He remained a mainstay in the Reds rotation for several years, topped by a terrific 1972 season when he went 15-5 with a 1.99 ERA. Injuries limited him to just two games over the next two seasons, but he returned to form in 1975, and in both World Champion seasons for the Reds he went 15-9.  He was a solid postseason pitcher, going 2-2 with a 3.34 ERA in October. Arm problems recurred for him in 1977, and the Reds traded him to the Angels the day they got Tom Seaver. After five games for the Angels in '77, Nolan retired.

Post-playing career, in brief: In 1978 he started work as a blackjack dealer at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas. He went on to a long career as a hotel and casino host in Las Vegas, most recently at the Gold Country Casino in his hometown of Oroville, CA.

My collection: I have 16 of his cards, from 1968 to 1977. I would be interested in trading for 1977 Hostess #113.

Vintage star cards roundup

 Looks like it's been three weeks since I did one of these posts. Three weeks of Greg Morris poor/filler star card auctions.

 

 I'm finding these to be the most effective way to add vintage star cards, older cards, high numbers and oddballs. Some are around $1 each, others more in the $3-5 range.

 

 This particular week I had to split into two photos  . . .

 

. . . because of all the Post cards. 

 

 Usually the biggest stars are still out of reach in those, but I managed to acquire a couple of big ones for the 1970 set. Aaron in particular looks like a wallet card that got laundered. 

Vintage singles from other sellers are harder to come by, perhaps because the more I get, the less I need. Managed to find a good price on a Joe Torre rookie card in a lot with two other Braves. I needed Joe Adcock too. He was quite a good hitter himself. Shaw is available if anyone needs him.

'56 Duke Snider with some minor issues.

Big week for Ernie Banks All Star cards. '58 . . .

. . . and '60,  with which I also picked up a '61 Maris MVP.

Finally a two-card lot from '54 Bowman. My first vintage Ralph Kiner card! He's on the Cubs which is not quite as good as his superstar days as a Pirate, but he's probably best remembered for the Mets, who weren't even a team when he was playing. Meanwhile Mel Clark is a fun card too with an exaggerated bunting pose.

Trade with Dime Boxes

I sent Nick of Dime Boxes some cards and he sent back a really nice variety of both vintage and newer  cards.

Starting off with some vintage Topps. Some big names here.

On to some vintage gum, cake, and two brands of cereal. Technically the Hostess card is a Twinkie (smaller font size on the back) but I'm not going down that rabbit hole for my collection. Either kind of background counts the same for me.

Some modern cards too! Some great Yankee teams represented here. And Jesse Barfield was a bright spot on the bad Yankee teams I grew up with. This is my first Little Big Leaguers card, it's a fun oddball.

Thanks Nick!

(A few of the vintage cards I had already and are available for trade. Martin, Bateman, Klein, Cater, Stafford. I have a '63 Robinson en route as well.)

Cake or Gum? 1976 Marty Perez

Last time it was Topps with a 5-2 victory. Who wins this time?

Two shots of Marty Perez in front of a trailer at the Braves spring training complex. I like cards with non-baseball-looking buildings in the background. Hostess chose a closeup of Perez choking up on the bat. Topps went for a full-body fielding pose.

Infielder Marty Perez played ten seasons in the major leagues for five teams, mostly the Braves. 50 years ago today he was one of the teammates who carried Hank Aaron after his 715th home run. The light-hitting Perez only hit 22 home runs over his career, and hit just .246, but he was an excellent fielder who led NL second baseman in fielding in 1974. In addition to his six seasons with the Braves, Perez also played for the Angels, Giants, Yankees and A's. In 1979, after his playing days ended, he started a job in the insurance industry. He started his own insurance company in Georgia in 1992, which was still active as recently as 2018.